Accelerated graft dysfunction in heart transplant patients with persistent atrioventricular conduction block.

Aims: Bradyarrhythmia following heart transplantation is common-∼7.5-24% of patients require permanent pacemaker (PPM) implantation. While overall mortality is similar to their non-paced counterparts, the effects of chronic right ventricular pacing (CRVP) in heart transplant patients have not been studied.

Impact of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators on Survival of Patients with Centrifugal Left Ventricular Assist Devices.

Background: Both implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have a positive impact on survival in the heart failure population. We sought to determine whether these positive effects on survival are additive or whether LVAD therapy supersedes ICD therapy.

Method: We analyzed survival data of patients implanted with nonpulsatile LVADs between October 2004 and March 2013.

Isolated ventricular noncompaction: implications for mechanisms of sudden cardiac death.

We present a case of a young patient, whose first manifestation of isolated ventricular noncompaction (IVNC) was sudden cardiac arrest precipitated by ventricular fibrillation. Furthermore we had the rare opportunity to record the onset of subsequent episodes of ventricular fibrillation-with discussion on the mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias in IVNC.

Left ventricular mechanical assist devices and cardiac device interactions: an observational case series.

Background: Nonpulsatile left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are increasingly used for treatment of refractory heart failure. A majority of such patients have implanted cardiac devices, namely implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) or cardiac resynchronization therapy-pacemaker (CRT-P) or cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator (CRT-D) devices. However, potential interactions between LVADs and cardiac devices in this category of patients remain unknown.

Brugada pattern electrocardiographic changes associated with profound electrolyte disturbance.

Only a few case reports of Brugada pattern ECG changes caused by electrolyte disturbance exist in the literature, all of which lack adequate electrophysiological exclusion (or inclusion) of an underlying Brugada syndrome. This report describes a case of an otherwise healthy 38-year-old man who presented to the hospital with diabetic ketoacidosis, profound electrolyte disturbance, and Brugada pattern ECG changes. Subsequent flecanide drug challenge and electrophysiological studies ruled out an underlying Brugada syndrome.

Ventricular tachycardia following ingestion of a commonly used antihistamine.

This report describes ventricular tachycardia, likely to have been torsade de pointes, following ingestion of the non-sedating antihistamine loratadine. Documentation of the arrhythmia was made possible by the automatic electrogram storage facility of an implanted defibrillator in a patient with no prior history of cardiac arrhythmia.